THE YOUNG TRAVELLER IN PORTUGAL

This closely autobiographical account of the author's trip (she is a newspaperwoman) to Portugal with her artist husband and their children, William and Patience, amounts to being one of the best books in this series. Frankly and clearly, it characterizes much of Portugal that could easily puzzle and confuse, and squarely faces the country's drawbacks along with its beauties. Though the author is the ""I"" of the story, the account is largely, about William and Patience and if their mother follows her own interests and her husband's, she has a knack of binding them with the children's so that a lot of common ground is covered. By showing, through conversations and visits along their economical camping trip south from Oporto, the issues of Salazar's benevolent dictatorship, the women who do nothing, the rigid and stifling moral laws, are described for what they are. In contrast, so is Portugal's rich history, the religious festivals, the color of her customs and more.